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The National Assembly on Thursday evening passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2017 to restore Khatm-i-Nabuwwat laws to their original form and make sections relating to it "more effective."

The bill was tabled by Law Minister Zahid Hamid, who assured the house that he and his family "were Muslims and believed in the finality of prophethood".

"My family and I are ready to lay our lives for the honour of Prophet Muhammad," the law minister offered to his critics, some of whom have insisted on his resignation for his alleged role in the affair.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal stepped in to support the beleaguered lawmaker, assuring him that: "In a state, faith and connection to God is a matter between him and God. No person can make a decision on anyone's faith."

"I will ask my brother [Zahid Hamid] that your faith is your personal matter and you do not need to present any clarifications regarding your faith," he added.

Sections 7B and 7C of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 were also restored to their original form via the bill.

Section 7B states that the status of Ahmedis remains as stated in the Constitution of Pakistan, while section 7C states that if an enrolled voter's belief in the finality of Prophet Muhammad's prophethood is contended, they shall have to sign a declaration reaffirming their belief, failing which their "name shall be deleted from the joint electoral rolls and added to a supplementary list of voters in the same electoral area as non-Muslim."

Hamid said that the new, amended bill will make the said sections more effective, adding that a separate voters list shall be created for Ahmadis as they will not be included in the list for Muslims.

The Khatm-i-Nabuwat declaration has also been restored to original form in both English and Urdu, he assured.

The Elections Act 2017 — which paved the way for Nawaz Sharif to return as PML-N president — had become a cause of controversy when it was revealed that a declaration regarding the finality of prophethood had been modified somewhere during the process of its passage.

The government had claimed that the modification was the result of a clerical mistake and vowed to restore the declaration to its original form.

An effort to immediately appease critics had been made last month by passing a bill, which the government had then claimed restored the declaration to original form.

However, religious and political parties and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had demanded that the responsibility for the error be fixed. A group of irate protesters belonging to fringe religious parties in Islamabad are also demanding the removal of Hamid for what they claim was not a mistake but a "conspiracy".

A decision on the fresh delimitation of constituencies based on provisional census data is also forthcoming.

On DawnNews

Comments (36) Closed

Taimur

Nov 16, 2017 06:30pm

Hopefully now there will be no corruption in Pakistan, there will be no rape cases, women shall be given rights, we will get pure food and medicines, youth will get jobs and poor people shall get justice,country will be prosperous and there will be peace.

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Nadeem

Nov 16, 2017 06:31pm

To be a modern strong state, nations must move away from such primitive thinking and laws

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Rahul

Nov 16, 2017 06:34pm

Proud day for Pakistan.

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Anti-Corruption_Pakistan

Nov 16, 2017 06:41pm

Sack law minister for making the changes in the first place, and punish his mastermind who instructed him to alter the oath. This is what nation want to see!

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Salman

Nov 16, 2017 07:05pm

So you are trying to say that the entire parliament and its members don't read the amendments and pass the laws without reviewing it. More importantly, the law minister doesn't review the amendments before he presents the law before the parliament.
Even making a separate voter list for this community is a damage overall. They were and should be part of the minorities, no extra special status to them other than that.
And all in this while, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) was in hibernation. It was their duty rather than a so called political clerical party to protest these amendments.

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Zeeshan

Nov 16, 2017 07:45pm

As Pakistanis, our religious belief is to have as much show and pomp with as little substance as possible. Declare anyone a heretic, send people to the gallows with impunity on unsubstantiated and ill conceived rhetorics while continuing to commit atrocities in stark violation to the spirit of the very teachings of the teachers we profess to defend. Bravo.

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R Sultan

Nov 16, 2017 07:58pm

What sort of monstrous society of zealots who wish to control everybody and the faith have we created. Some need to be brave and confront and neutralise these religious freaks.

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Wasi

Nov 16, 2017 08:06pm

Those responsible for previous amendment should b punished

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P Ghosh

Nov 16, 2017 08:48pm

The demand of the time is fulfilled. It makes society vice free.Zannat is assured for everyone. Faithfulness to be declared in writing. Fantastic idea.

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Gul Afridi

Nov 16, 2017 09:35pm

Proud!!! This is true progress toward the cause for which Pakistan being made.

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Qureshi (USA)

Nov 16, 2017 10:43pm

Pakistan should be proud of this law and now Pakistan will become corruption free, no energy shortages, poverty will be gone, streets will be clean, water will be in abundance, jobs will be created and Pakistan will not be dependent on foreign aid. Pakistan wake up and join the civilized world of 21st century. Start working on peace and prosperity and start doing good for the world and people instead of wasting time on irrelevant issues.

It looks like this parliament is very in-efficient in its functioning. The speaker is by all standards a failure who blindly follows his party line instead of be a good house keeper.

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Abid

Nov 17, 2017 01:22am

What if west implement the same rules for Muslims in their countries?

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BlueCollar

Nov 17, 2017 01:35am

When you classify your citizens in different groups/classifications, right away you bury democracy in a 6 ft hole.

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Jaleel U Rahman

Nov 17, 2017 02:09am

It may now help the nation to land on the moon. Good job!

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Iqbal Zaman Khan

Nov 17, 2017 02:26am

Great

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Jalaluddin S. Hussain

Nov 17, 2017 02:41am

Ahmedis are human beings and should be treated as such!

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Abdul Qureshi

Nov 17, 2017 02:42am

The religious fanatics have been successful in imposing their will on the nation. Only in Pakistan.

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saqib ghumman

Nov 17, 2017 03:14am

This will help Pakistan to progress and we all feel very proud by this important move..

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Fareed N

Nov 17, 2017 04:51am

@Nadeem , world is trying to move into 21st century , we want to go back 1400 years.

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LAHORI KID

Nov 17, 2017 05:13am

@Taimur, For the sake of the people of Pakistan, Ameen. but that is a lot to ask, fair to ask, but still a lot. At least our courts and judges are starting to go after the corruption without bowing down to the powerful. Its a great start, as far as the prosperity of our beloved country, jobs for youth and everyone and equal rights for women are concerned, the current and future governments will have to be held accountable for all the promises they make during the elections. And lets not forget education, without education, you cannot get a decent job, education without qualified teachers is impossible. Our governments are too busy dwelling on the democracy, constitution and self serving agendas, the democracy is only limited to an idea, and the constitution is, well, no comment on that

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Mohsin Malik

Nov 17, 2017 05:36am

I am raised in Europe and I always associated with Pakistan in the past. But my association is dying with every passing day I cannot even imagine that I will be registered in a separate voter list because of my religious views in Europe. This is utter discrimination and no one can defend it. Just imagine a separate voter list for Pakistanis in America and Europe based on their views. I am shameful to even be associated with this Pakistani Society.

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Salman

Nov 17, 2017 05:41am

Fixated with issues of who believes what and how they pray.

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Adil Jadoon

Nov 17, 2017 06:12am

@Rahul Shameful infact!

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Alla Bux

Nov 17, 2017 06:31am

Thank you. Back to 7th Century. We can not wait.

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Desi

Nov 17, 2017 06:56am

@Taimur Women rights are not included.

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ania

Nov 17, 2017 07:58am

Now I want Trump to make a database of Muslims living in America. Pakistan should not object to that.

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Muneer

Nov 17, 2017 08:03am

Who in PMLN and Government are responsible for creating an unnecessary issue. It will certainly have an adverse affect on PMLN in the next elections?.

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Adil306

Nov 18, 2017 10:57am

Why did Zahid Hamid passed the sensitive law the first time? He only withdrew when people came to know about the facts. Shameless people.